I’ll admit when I first got the book, I was skeptical. Doing more in less time is a big theme in the worlds of entrepreneurship, small business and creativity. I send a healthy chortle and eye roll to books like The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss (yes, I’ve read it, so I’ve earned the right to throw shade).

No judgement here if the 4-Hour methods are up your alley. But hiring a virtual assistant and outsourcing are not options for my productivity needs. (although, spoiler alert, Chris Bailey does touch on VAs.) I think most of us in the creative arena need much more introspective recommendations.

The Productivity Project is well-researched and contains many immediately doable activities.

I was pleasantly surprised and all-around pleased at the really useful information the cook contains. In fact (nerd alert!!), I found myself jotting notes in the margins and highlighting ideas I wanted to come back to. Geeky as I may be, I really don’t mark up my books all that often.

The book is broken up into seven sections with each containing 3 – 4 activities. Chris introduces each activity with background information from his research as well as his own experiences. I always like reading other people’s stories for stuff like this. If nothing else, I can compare them to my own experiences.

I was also very happy to see that mindfulness and energy management were big themes Chris stuck to in the book. This, of course, generally flies in the face of conventional, super-human, do-it-all, go-go-GO productivity advice.

I would love to see a companion workbook available since some of the activities involve writing/reflecting. And I could genuinely see Chris’ content being made into a course for corporate types… or really anyone for that matter. (Note to Chris, if you ever read this review: I’m an instructional designer!)

Overall, a great book and one I’m very happy to have in my library!

(FTC fine print: I received this book free of charge from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review. Additionally, there are affiliate links in this blog post.)

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